Bone and muscle changes seen on chest CT in people with COPD
Official title: : Osteoporosis and Sarcopenia in COPD and CT-based Phenotypes
Funded at University of Iowa · NIH-11261204 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Using chest CT scans and AI, researchers will look for patterns of bone loss and muscle weakness linked to COPD in people with and without the disease.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Iowa NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Iowa City, United States) |
| Project start | February 1, 2025 |
| Project end | January 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $116,625 |
| NIH project number | 5R21HL172227-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11261204 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are adults with COPD who have paired inspiratory and expiratory chest CT scans or healthy never-smoking adults from the MESA Lung and COPDGene datasets who can share their imaging data.
✕Less likely to help
People without chest CT imaging, those with only non-thoracic bone or muscle conditions, or individuals outside the cohorts used (MESA Lung/COPDGene) are unlikely to benefit directly from this project.
What this research studies
If you take part, the team will use your existing chest CT scans and computerized image analysis to measure spinal bone density, pectoral muscle mass, and diaphragm movement between inhalation and exhalation. They will build normal aging models from healthy never-smokers and then compare those models to people with COPD to find distinct bone and muscle aging patterns. The study uses automated AI tools to extract these measures from inspiratory and expiratory CT images and will validate those tools against established datasets. Results will be used to define new CT-based phenotypes of osteoporosis and sarcopenia in COPD.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could allow earlier detection of bone loss and muscle weakness from routine chest CTs, helping clinicians target prevention or treatment for people with COPD.
How similar studies have gone: Opportunistic CT measures of bone density and muscle mass have shown promise in prior work, but applying automated AI-derived diaphragm deformation metrics to define sarcopenia in COPD is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Iowa
Iowa City, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Saha, Pranav K. — University of Iowa
- Study coordinator: Saha, Pranav K.
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.